Millions of children know the tale of George Washington, who, as a boy, could not tell a lie and admitted cutting down a cherry tree. It is an instructive story, making the point that Washington’s sterling character and moral courage, even more than his generalship during the Revolutionary War, are the reasons he rose to become this nation’s first president.
The honesty and decency Washington demonstrated in his public and private life may seem outmoded notions these days,, but the existence of the Seneca Ladies Literary Society of Woodstock — perhaps the nation’s oldest women’s club — shows that for some people, they are notions for the ages.
“The object of this society shall be the promotion of truth and morality and the intellectual improvement of its members,” states Article 1 of the society’s constitution, which dates from 1855, when the Seneca Ladies Literary Society was formed to join a national movement to buy Washington’s estate in Mt. Vernon, Va., for the public.
Tens of thousands of women’s literary groups were created back then, pooling the nickel or dime dues of their members for the endeavor, and in 1858 their goal was reached. But the Seneca Ladies Literary Society has remained active.
“We’re supposed to be the oldest continuously active ladies society in the country,” said Evalyn Johansen, 92, of Woodstock, a member whose family involvement in the club spans four generations. “I don’t know how to prove it, but no one in our club has ever been able to find another group that’s been around as long as we have.”
Nor could Life magazine, which featured an article on women’s reading groups in its August issue and credited the Seneca Ladies Literary Society with being the oldest club it could find among the 500,000 that exist.
“We were organized in 1855,” Johansen said, “so it doesn’t surprise me.”
The society has always been a small group and today has 14 members, most of whom are beyond retirement age. Johansen has been a member for 43 years, but she has a long way to go to catch her mother, Mae Peterson, who spent more than 60 years in the group and was a member until her death at age 95 in 1979.
Johansen’s daughter, Charla Pierce, 58, and granddaughter, Alyssa Whiting, 27, both of Woodstock, are also Seneca Ladies members. The group takes its name from McHenry County’s Seneca Township, a still rural but developing area between Woodstock and Marengo.
Simple pleasures — poetry readings, piano recitals, informational lectures, discussions of books or magazine articles or other activities — are a part of each monthly meeting. There are also light refreshments, a hymn, a Scripture reading and recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. The hostess for each meeting, which typically lasts about two hours, sets the program.
“I think we’ve stayed together because of love of family connections,” Johansen said. “And old-time friendship, I think. Basic life values, I would say. And the historic value of it, because the club was originated in Seneca Township by farm women who got together and contributed toward the restoration of Mt. Vernon. Then, during the Civil War and later wars, they knitted socks and did what they could to help that way.”
The club meets the third Saturday of each month in a member’s home. When founded, club dues were 5 cents a meeting. Dues have not kept up with inflation and are now just 25 cents. Portions of those dues and additional donations still find their way to Mt. Vernon to help with its upkeep and to the Statue of Liberty, to help with maintenance there.
Membership is open to area women, and Johansen said interested women can contact a member about upcoming meetings.
Despite having “literary” in the group’s name, some programs have little or no connection to literature. Programs have included talks on foreign countries club members have visited, instruction on how to conduct genealogical research, flower gardening and vegetable canning. Other meetings, though, have focused on magazine articles, non-fiction or fiction books and the writings of club members. It all depends on the hostess.
“I’m bookish. I like biographies, so I tend to stick more with biographies and non-fiction,” said Eleanor Gerloff of Woodstock, a 15-year member in her 60s. “It isn’t that we read such great tomes. I think we enjoy the club because, in many ways, it’s very broadening. Everybody’s interests are so different. Some of us are very bookish. Others are interested in history, or genealogy, or travel or something else that they can do a program on when it’s their turn to host. So we always learn something.”
Gerloff said she also likes that the club has maintained its 19th Century pace and charm.
“It’s a club you don’t drop out of because you don’t become so busy with it that you become sick of it,” Gerloff said. “It’s not rigid or pressured. We don’t have committees or anything like that. There’s always good conversation. The people are never dull. Some people are a little reluctant to join because they think we’re all so old. And in today’s world, I guess some people don’t see a value in this kind of organization until they become involved with it.”
Maggie Field Crane would disagree on that last count. Crane, director of the Woodstock Public Library District, said she and the rest of the library staff “take vicarious pleasure in the fact that it is a literary society that is local and steeped in history. I think it’s an interesting organization. We here (at the library) would like to claim them as our own.”
The Seneca Ladies have occasionally made cash or other donations to the library, including a county history book that club members helped prepare, Field said. One Seneca Lady, Joyce Perkins of Woodstock, makes a regular contribution of time and talent by serving as a library trustee.
The official history of the Seneca Ladies Literary Society is a loose collection of newspaper clippings and magazine articles about the club or Mt. Vernon; meeting minutes; histories written by individual members that build on prior histories; a handmade program for the club’s 125th anniversary potluck dinner; a eulogy in dialogue form for a departed club member; and a recipe titled simply “Elizabeth Hobe’s Doughnuts.” That history reveals that the club has not been without turmoil.
“At the annual meeting, 1872, occurred the incident of culmination of incidents, now known as the only quarrel the ladies have indulged in, the contention being for restriction of membership, that the society might shine as the social elite,” states an undated entry by a Seneca Lady identified only as Mrs. Rose. “This would be ignoring the aim the constitution set forth, and when brought to the test was promptly voted down, resulting in the withdrawal of five prominent members, who immediately started a society of their own, but without the sanction of the society or share in the books that they had demanded. They named their society the South Seneca Ladies Literary Society. . . . “
There is no further record of this militant wing of Seneca Ladies, and their fate remains unknown.
Now, 126 years after that sad affair, all is harmony. Charla Pierce of Woodstock speaks of the closeness of the members, how they care for one another in times of illness, helping with cooking or cleaning or other chores that may need doing.
An accomplished pianist and piano teacher, Pierce often plays a few selections at the monthly meetings. She said she has been picking authors to read, researching their lives and reading portions of their work. Sometimes when she or another member does a presentation on an author, the presenter dresses in clothing from the period of the writer, to lend an air of authenticity. She is also developing a skill her grandmother took for granted, and which her 92-year-old mother also possesses.
“In the years I went to school, (the schools) had pretty much stopped doing poetry,” Pierce said. “My mother and grandmother could quote poetry from memory, almost effortlessly. Now I’m finally getting it.”
Pierce said holiday time is an especially fun time for club members, as the meetings usually center on some aspect of the holiday. And each January, the ladies and their families gather at a member’s house for an oyster dinner, carrying on a club tradition that dates to at least 1886.
For all the reasons current members have for the longevity of their club, probably none could surpass in charm those given by the late Allene F. Silliman, who wrote a historical essay on the club in 1951, which club records show was also the year of her death.
“We believe one of the secrets of the continued life and growth of our Society is that we welcome in turn the body into our homes; we see just a little of the home life of each other,” Silliman wrote. “We become interested in the little every day affairs of each in a neighborly way.
“We hear that some sister has been hobbling around because in her hurry she failed to turn all the hot water into the teapot and our sympathy is aroused. Or we have read a new book that has thrilled to loftier aspirations and somebody is sure to respond. Is there a sorrowing sister, a hearty sympathy will come to help her over the hard place. Is there a diversity of opinion upon a subject, we are sure to have our sharp corners smoothed out a little and we learn to give and take in charity for each other.”
